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Too warm for Bryce
GOVERNOR-GENERAL Quentin Bryce was all revved up with her winter twin-set with matching gloves and beanie to jet off to Antarctica this week when she received some disappointing news. It's been positively balmy down by the South Pole, and the 4km ice runway that was to receive the stylish GG's Airbus A319 was not cold enough for jets to land. A spokeswoman for the Australian Antarctic Division said it had elected to cancel Bryce's scheduled flight. "Occasionally, in the middle of summer, high levels of solar radiation increase the temperature of the ice, causing some
sub-surface softness," a spokeswoman said. That's science code for the sun comes out and things warm up,
leaving a slushy runway. Maybe it's the cutting edge of global warming: what would Christopher Monckton think?
A slushy runway - how do you tell when its good enough to land on again and how would you test that one? Wonder if the GG was miffed!!